THEN AND NOW.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1084, 8 June 1882, Page 2

THEN AND NOW.

‘ You will not be false to me George ?’ and tho bright blue eyes of Elaine Jenkins looked fondly into the face of the man who bent over her as fbhdly, and whoso words of love camo to her troubled breast with the same sweet soothing restfuloss that a tired man feels when the throbs of his aching head are stilled and the demons of pain driven away by the touch of a wife’s hand, and the sound of her low sweet voice. ‘ No, iny little one,’ replied George W. Tompkinson, drawing the girl closer to him, ‘ 1 will never deceive you, never do aught that would give you sorrow or pain. You made a better man of mo—dragged me, as it were, from the horrid maelstorm of draw-poker and twenty-five cent drinks into whoso deadly centre I was quickly being drawn, and landed me in the Lotos Islands of your love—the pure passionate, trusting {love of a heart that beats alone for me. Never fear my darling, that I will leave you—• and pressing a kiss upon the ripe, red lips that could make a cake jar look desolate, he went out into the starlit night and started down the street-car track, where there was no danger of being interrupted by vehicles. Ten years later. Over the old front gate, thrown out of plumb so many, many times by George and Elaine hanging over it to swap lies, the vindUkre growing. A little to tho left is, moss-covered and uncared for. 'Towser is dead. In the sun-kissed woodshed back of the house a man is chopping wood. A woman comes to the door. ‘ George I’ she says. ‘ Yes,’ ‘ Dinner’s ready. Drive the brats out of tho ally, and bring in some wood when yon come.’ * All right.’ Heaven help them—they are married 1

Mr Plimsoll has been making a tour in India. Mrs Plimsoll accompanied him, and, leaving Mr Plimsoll in England, will start on an Antipodean tour in search of health immediately. Not long ago in the House of Lords the decoration of the Victoria Cross was under discussion, and a certain noble lord was asked what a relative of his own had ever done to entitle him to such a distinction. The reply was curt and very much to the point, and was considered highly satisfactory. “Ho married the most hideous and worst-tempered woman in England.”